Revealed: Hero mother died shielding her seven-month-old daughter who survived - while boy hid his siblings from gunmen in bushes and walked 13 miles for help after cartel opened fire on Mormon family killing nine - as police arrest a suspected drug lord

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Harrowing new details have emerged in the slaughter of three Mormon mothers and six of their children after cartel gunmen opened fire in a grisly ambush in Mexico on Monday. 

Nine members of the LeBaron family were attacked eight miles apart on Monday while traveling in a convoy of three SUVS on a dirt road. 

One hero mother died shielding her seven-month-old daughter who survived, it has since emerged. And a 13-year-old boy hid his siblings from gunmen in bushes and walked 13 miles for help, loved ones say. 

Police confirmed they have arrested a suspected drug lord after the killings which left one vehicle torched and riddled with bullets. 

The state prosecutor's office said one person was detained on Tuesday in the Mexican border state of Sonora and they were investigating whether they were involved in the massacre. 

The mothers were driving in separate vehicles with their children from the La Mora religious community where they live, which is a decades-old settlement in Sonora state founded as part of an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Rhonita Miller and four of her children - her six-month-old twins, Titus and Tiana, her 10-year-old daughter Krystal and 12-year-old son Howard - were all killed.  

Another two mothers, Dawna Langford and Christina Langford Johnson, as well as Dawna's sons, aged 11 and three, were also all killed. 

Dawna's son Devin walked 13 miles to get help from relatives. He covered his injured siblings with branches before trying to make out where the shots were coming from to avoid the gunmen as he walked away.

Relatives say he reached the community six hours later. Family members alerted authorities before arming themselves with guns to go out searching for the injured children.  

Christina saved her seven-month-old baby Faith's life by throwing the infant to the floor of their SUV as bullets tore through the vehicle.     

At least three American mothers and six children from a Mormon community based in northern Mexico have been massacred in an attack blamed on drug cartel gunmen. Maria Rhonita Miller was killed along with her six-month-old twins, Titus and Tiana (left and right), her 10-year-old daughter Krystal (left) and 12-year-old son Howard (center) 

Christina Langford Johnson (left) and Dawna Ray Langford (right) were also killed traveling in two separate SUVs. Christina saved her seven-month-old baby Faith's life by throwing the infant to the floor of their SUV. Two of Dawna's children, Trevor, 11, and Rogan, 3, were killed in the attack

Dawna Ray Langford, 43, and two of her children, Trevor, 11, (right with his mom) and Rogan, 3, (left) also died in the attack

A video posted on social media showed the charred and smoking remains of their vehicle riddled with bullet holes. 

Family members say Rhonita was driving to Phoenix on Monday with her four children to pick up her husband at the airport following his work trip.

Relatives told DailyMail.com that her car broke down after she blew a tire. She returned to their community to get another car and set off again shortly before the other two mothers left.

Gunmen opened fire and torched her vehicle causing the gas tank to explode. She was killed along with her four children.

Christina and Dawna were traveling in separate SUVs with their own children.

They were en route to see family in the state of Chihuahua for a wedding that was scheduled for Friday, relatives told DailyMail.com. 

Seven of Dawna's children survived but some suffered multiple gunshot wounds, according to relatives who found Christina's baby, unharmed, still in her car seat on the backseat floor of the SUV. Dawna's five injured children were taken by ambulance to hospital. The three children who were not injured are now back home at the community. 

Injuries suffered to the youngsters include a gun shot wound to a 14-year-old's foot.  An eight-year-old was shot in the jaw and in a leg. And a four-year-old was shot in the back. A nine-month-old baby was shot in the chest. 

La Mora is about 70 miles south of Douglas in Arizona. Many of the church's members were born in Mexico and thus have dual citizenship.

Five of the children who were injured were airlifted to hospitals in in Phoenix, Arizona.

Multiple family members, many of whom live in Utah, took to social media following the massacre to detail the horror scenes and pay tribute to their slain family members.

They say the gunmen opened fire on one child who was trying to run away. Relatives also feared some of the victims may have been raped. 

Mexican Security Secretary Alfonso Durazo said the gunmen may have mistaken the group's large SUVs for those of rival gangs. 

A video posted on social media showed the charred and smoking remains of one of the vehicles riddled with bullet holes that was apparently carrying the victims when the attack happened 

The shooting occurred near the town of Bavispe between Sonora and Chihuahua near the US-Mexico border 

The slaughter of U.S. citizens on Mexican soil quickly became an international issue with President Donald Trump on Tuesday vowing to help Mexico wage a war on its drug cartels.

Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said he would discuss security on Tuesday with the U.S. after Trump fired off a series of tweets.

'This is the time for Mexico, with the help of the United States, to wage WAR on the drug cartels and wipe them off the face of the earth,' Trump tweeted.

Obrador, however, refused that approach, saying 'The worst thing you can have is war'.

Relatives have since been paying tribute to their slain family members and called on Trump to act. 

'My beautiful niece.. I'm heartbroken I'm so so sorry you became a victim of the evil in this world. You will always be my angel girl. Hold your babies tight. Love you Dawna, Rogan and Trevor eternally #familieswillbetogetherforever,' Trish Cloes posted on Facebook. 

'The evil might of had a plan on this earth but God has a greater plan for our family.' 

She added in a later post: 'Dawna's children escaped with bullet holes in several places on their bodies. The children managed to get help under horrible circumstances.

'The children managed to escape with their baby brother. Baby was harmed with a bullet across his chest and through his arm. (Just got an update) This is a courage act of these innocent children.'

One of Rhonita's aunts, Brenda LeBaron, called on the U.S. to take action over the family's murder. 

'I am totally heart broken right now over this. We need the U.S. to take invasive action right now. I have made a few calls already and I am getting hit with the same thing... The president of Mexico has to call Trump and give us permission to move forward,' Brenda told DailyMail.com 

'Trump tweeted that he needs the call from the President of Mexico and the U.S. will wipe the cartel out in this area. I need help to force the call and not allow the president of Mexico to avoid bringing in the military. If the President of Mexico doesn't make the call then we all know that he is in with the cartels.' 

Dawna's injured children are pictured above in hospital. Brothers Xander Boe, 4, and Cody Grayson, 7, suffered gunshot wounds in the attack

Dawna's injured children are pictured above in hospital. Kylie Evelyn, 14, is pictured left in hospital with blood soaked jeans as she is comforted by a relative following thew shocking attack. Brixon Oliver, 10 months, feeds from a bottle (right) in hospital alongside his siblings

Kenny LeBarón, a cousin of one of the women, told the New York Times: 'When you know there are babies tied in a car seat that are burning because of some twisted evil that's in this world. It's just hard to cope with that.'

Another relative, Lafe LeBaron, said the family had no help from authorities. He said family members from the community had risked their own lives by 'scrambling into the mountains to find our loved ones' after first finding out about the attacks.     

Julian LeBaron, a relative and activist who has denounced criminal groups in the area, described the attack as a 'massacre'. 

His brother, Benjamin LeBaron, founder of a crime-fighting group called SOS Chihuahua, was assassinated in 2009. 

When asked who might be responsible, LeBaron said the attack took place in a 'war zone', home to drug cartels and 'thugs'. 

The government deployed the army to fight drug trafficking in 2006, but experts blame the so-called 'drug war' for the spiraling violence between fragmented cartels and the military, which has lead to more than 250,000 murders. 

His family 'may have been caught in crossfire or targeted by mistake, we don't know the cause,' he said, but added that the Mormon community had recently been the target of threats. 

Rhonita Miller, part of Mormon community who were attacked in Mexico, in an undated photo released by a family member

Family members say Rhonita Maria LeBaron (left) was driving to Phoenix on Monday with her four children to pick up her husband and then return to Mexico to celebrate their wedding anniversary. She was killed along with her twin six-month-old babies, Titus and Tiana, (right) her 10-year-old daughter Krystal and 12-year-old son Howard.

Rhonita Maria LeBaron was driving to Phoenix on Monday with her four children to pick up her husband and then return to Mexico to celebrate their wedding anniversary, relatives say 

 Rhonita Maria LeBaron's two children, 12-year-old Howard and 10-year-old Krystal, were killed alongside their mother

Dawna Langford (center blue dress) was killed along with two of her children. Seven of her other children escaped and the injured were later treated in hospital 

Authorities in Sonora state and the U.S. Embassy did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 

Sen. Mitt Romney says he's been briefed on the slaying of nine U.S. citizens in northern Mexico and calls it 'a great tragedy' and something 'really unthinkable.'

The Republican from Utah said Tuesday that the attacks were probably 'associated with the business of the cartels' rather than a targeted attack on the U.S.-affiliated religious community.

He said he agrees with President Donald Trump that 'Mexico has to really knuckle down and go after some of these cartels and stop this escalating level of violence.'

Romney's own father was born in a similar but different group in northern Mexico. He said he doesn't know any of the people involved. 

The federal Department of Security and Citizens' Protection said security forces were reinforced with National Guard, army and state police troops in the area following 'the reports about disappearance and aggression against several people.' 

The U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Christopher Landau said in a tweet in Spanish that 'the safety of our fellow citizens is our top priority. I am closely following the situation in the mountains between Sonora and Chihuahua'.

Claudia Pavlovich Arellano, the governor of Sonora, said on Twitter late Monday that 'as a mother,' she was filled with deep pain by 'the cowardly acts in the mountains'.  

'I don't know what kind of monsters dare to hurt women and children,' she wrote. 

Senator for Sonora, Lilly Téllez, tweeted: 'The massacre in Sonora cannot go unpunished.'

Manuel Añorve Baños, another Mexican senator, described the incident 'a despicable, merciless and savage act'.

It would not be the first time that members of the break-away church had been attacked in northern Mexico, where their forebears settled - often in Chihuahua state - decades ago.

The colony was founded by Alma Dayer LeBaron who moved to Mexico as a breakaway from the Mormon church in 1924 after being excommunicated from the church for practicing polygamy. 

When Alma died in 1951, he passed the leadership of the community on to his son Joel LeBaron, whose younger brother Ervil LeBaron, was his second in command.

When the brother's split, Ervil had Joel killed. He was tried and convicted in Mexico for Joel's murder in 1974. He died in prison in 1981.

In 2009, Benjamin LeBaron, an anti-crime activist who was related to those killed in Monday's attack, was murdered in 2009 in neighboring Chihuahua state.  

Madelyn Staddon, left, a relative of some of the members of a Mormon community who were attacked while traveling near the US-Mexico border, embraces a neighbor outside her home. Relative Aaron Staddon, right, said Tuesday that the children are recovering but that one who was shot in the jaw will need extensive plastic surgery

Father of woman executed by Mexican drug cartel reveals three of his nephews were kidnapped and two of them murdered by drug lords 10 years ago - as he blasts the killers for trying to stoke terror in their Mormon community 

Benjamin LeBaron (left) and Luis Widmar Stubbs (right), who are members of the same Mormon community as the family killed on Monday by a Mexican cartel, were also murdered by drug lords 10 years ago

The father of one of three American women executed by a Mexican cartel says two of his nephews were also murdered by drug lords 10 years ago and another was kidnapped.

Adrián LeBaron on Tuesday blasted the Mexican cartel for trying to stoke terror in the Mormon community in the wake of Monday's grisly attack on his daughter and grandchildren in the Mexican border state of Sonora. 

The nine victims, who all belong to the LeBaron family, were massacred by cartel gunmen while traveling in a convoy of three SUVs along a dirt road.

Authorities say the gunmen ambushed their vehicles as the family traveled from the La Mora religious community where they live, which is a decades-old settlement founded as an offshoot of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. 

Adrián's daughter Rhonita Maria LeBaron and four of her children, including her six-month-old twins, a 10-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son, were gunned down.  

Another two mothers, Dawna Langford and Christina Langford Johnson, as well as Dawna's sons, aged 11 and three, were also all killed. 

Speaking from the scene where his daughter and grandchildren were murdered, Adrián told DailyMail.com that the cartel gunmen 'killed innocent people to teach fear'.

He said it was the second time his family and members of the break-away church had been targeted by cartel gunmen in northern Mexico. 

Two of his nephews were killed and another was kidnapped back in 2009. 

Eric LeBaron, who was 16 at the time, was kidnapped in May 2009 by a drug cartel. His family turned down a $1 million ransom demand and Eric was eventually freed

Eric LeBaron, who was 16 at the time, was kidnapped in May 2009. His kidnapping sparked protests about lawlessness in the region. His family turned down a $1 million ransom demand and Eric was eventually freed. 

Months later, Eric's brother Benjamin LeBaron and brother-in-law Luis Widmar Stubbs were murdered. 

Benjamin, who was an anti-crime activist, was killed in retaliation for speaking out publicly about his younger brother's abduction, according to his relatives. 

He was kidnapped in the middle of the night by a group who had tied his hands and threw him onto a truck. His brother-in-law and neighbor, Luis, had tried to help him. He was beaten and then thrown on the truck as well. 

Both Benjamin and Luis were later found dead in a cemetery. They had both been shot in the back of the head.  

'They are isolated events. But these are the bad spirits of bad people wanting control. It an evil energy, force, that exists in our surroundings and it is the second time they've killed (one) of us,' Adrián said. 

'It is not an attack against our community, what we have here is a protest. They are making a statement and I do not know towards who. However, they killed my daughter with that purpose. 

'There is an incredible evil here. I do not know what you call this. If they are using us to make a statement. I do not know who it's for. One cartel towards another.' 

He called the attack of his daughter and grandchildren 'premeditated'. 

'There is no mistake here. Here they killed innocent people to teach fear,' he said. 

'Just as in 2009, we did not want to pay a ransom, we have never accepted when they harass you, when they extort you. I do not tell that group, I'm telling any group that exists in our Mexico that we do not give in.'